Bound to the Alpha: Part Two by Viola Rivard

Chapter 1
    M ine .
    He had obliterated her, and there was no going back. Every time his claws pieced her flesh, every time his teeth punctured her neck, and every time he thrust into her with wild abandon, Cain had branded her. Beneath him—and he wouldn’t have it any other way—she became something else, something inhuman.
    He had destroyed her, and she had loved every second of it, had begged him for more. It was as if she had been hollow, not just that day, but her entire life. She had climaxed with him each time, and each time she experienced a fleeting feeling of complete and utter fulfillment. It never lasted, though. Like a junkie, she would crash just minutes later, hollow once more and needing him again. And he was always ready for her.
    For a long time, she stared up at the ceiling. There was a small fire, mostly hot embers, but the light reflected off the ceiling, making it shimmer. She thought it looked a lot like the glittering wall where they had first…what? Had sex? Too clinical. Made love? Too intimate. Fucked? Too dispassionate. Mated… Now that was a word with potential. What they had done was primitive and primal. He had taken her like an animal—like a crazed wolf in the body of a man—and now all she could do was stare up at the ceiling in a daze.
    Mine.
    For however long they had been there, it had seemed to be the only thing he could say. She could remember him gripping her breasts, making them look almost small in his big hands. Mine , he would tell her. During the brief interludes between their mating, he would nuzzle her, murmuring the word into her neck. Mine. Each time he came, he would slam himself into her, gripping her hips with a thrilling ferocity before growling out the word. Mine.
    It was as if he thought that if he said the word over and over again, she would start to believe it.
    And she had.
    Slowly, the fog lifted from her mind. The smells of roasting meat and old sweat clashed, making her both hungry and nauseated. She lifted herself up with a small groan. Her body was a mess. She felt worse than she had after the car accident that had very nearly killed her four days ago.
    Had it been four days? She pressed a hand to her forehead, this time letting out a much longer groan. If her body was a mess, her mind was totally wrecked. She had no idea how long she’d been there—wherever there even was.
    She had vague memories of Cain bringing her to the small cavern, shortly after the second or third time they’d mated out on the ground. She wasn’t sure what had happened after that. She remembered a lot of mating, broken by the occasional nap. Cain brought her food and water a few times, and she had the gut-churning suspicion that at some point he’d given her raw meat, and she had liked it.
    “What were you thinking?” The scratchy, whiney voice sounded nothing like her own, but she was the only one in the room, so it had to have come from her. It was the first time she’d woken up alone, and she took it as a sign that Cain had also come to his senses.
    Shivering, she scooted over and picked up one of the furs from the makeshift pallet she’d been resting on, pulling it over her shoulders. It didn’t smell the greatest, but it was warm and beneath the musk of sex, she could detect a hint of Cain’s woodsy scent.
    Looking around the small cavern, she noted with a measure of relief that the duffle bag lay against the far wall. It said wonders about her self-esteem that she thought Cain would just leave her in the middle of the wilderness after everything that had happened.
    He must have been gone for a little while because the meat had been burned on one side. She ate it anyway, chewing and swallowing, but not tasting. After a few more minutes of wallowing in self-loathing, she decided to get dressed. Finding her pants first, she slowly worked her legs into them, cringing at the pain between her thighs.
    Just as she was buttoning her pants, she heard the sound of booted feet.